You want an embroidered hat. Great idea! Then comes our next question. "What kind of hat do you want?" You reply " Oh, just a hat."
If only it was that simple........
Hats can be one of the most difficult decisions for our clients. Some clients who are hat wearers, are very picky about their hats. Then you have others who don't wear hats, but want them for their clients but are unsure what they want.

Here are some basic terms and descriptions of choices to make when choosing hats.
Structured: Like it sounds, this hat has a structure to the body of the hat which holds the shape of the hat solidly.

Unstructured: Like it sounds too. It has no structure to the body of the hat so it is soft in it's shape and can be limp and collapsible.

Profile of a hat is the height of the hat from the bill up.

High Profile: This is the tallest height. Has lots of room for embroidery or printing.

Mid Profile: This is not to tall not to low. It has enough room for a nice size logo.

Low Profile: This profile pretty much follows closely with your head. Very limited space for embroidery or printing but it can be done. With low profile think of maybe just some simple wording or a name. You can also do embroidery on the sides as well.

5 Panel hat or 6 Panel hat?
Panels are the triangle pieces of the hat that are sewn together to make up the crown of the hat. You are probably saying " Who cares?".
Well you might if you have a nice logo to go on the front and you pick a hat that has a seam of the panel running down the middle of the front of your hat right where the logo is going to go. Look at the differences of the 5 & 6 panel hats and think of where your logo placement is going to be. If you want your logo off to the side of the front a seam down the middle will be fine. So give it some thought.

Precurved Bill
Have you ever seen someone who loves to wear hats get a new hat and gently (sometimes not so gently) fold the bill. Then put it on, then take if off and fold the bill again until he gets it just right? He is curving the bill of the hat so it is not just straight across.
Well now some of the hats come with a precurved bill.

Closures
The adjustments at the back of the hat to give you a nice fit to your head. Some folks have definite opinions about what kind of closure they want.
Velrco - Two Velcro strips that you can adjust
Buckle - Has a buckle that slides to adjust
Fitted - These are not the fitted hats where you measure your head and order an exact size. These have elastic in the band around the back so there is no adjusting. It stretches to fit. These are usually more expensive. Sometimes they come in two sizes, either small/medium or large/extra large. Most of the time it is one size fits all.

These are some of the decisions in your hat choices. Your embroiderer or printer can help you with these choices.

But there are more choices to make because I did not even touch on the fabric of the hat, cotton, twill, mesh, mesh back, sandwich bill, hmmmmm....
I think I see another article in the works!

Happy Hat Hunting!
Nancy

Nancy Wilds
08/25/2010

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